When I do, I will keep a map of ancient names handy so I can solve the puzzle of who went where when. I'll have to read this book again, but since I haven't finished, I'm off the hook for now. The attitude of the ancient world towards the Jews is also quite remarkable (they thought them barbaric, uncivilised, and extremely dangerous). Julius Caesar burning the library at Alexandria came up in conversation. The book was quite useful for research for "Partial Recall" where I referenced the battle of Marathon (it's science fiction, and I recall reading someone else's tribute to the battle of Marathon stored in a murderous snow globe or cube.) It is also a source of endless trivia - understanding the actual morality of Alexander the Great and his generals - and for good measure that it was not unusual for the time. In terms of capturing the flow of history and providing an understanding of the times, the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus, Tacitus and Josephus don't match it. Reading the history of the ancient world gave me a good feel for the amount and quality of ancient records, and a much better appreciation for the quality of the history in in the Bible - I can understand how Sola Scriptura is an entirely defensible position. For good measure, some names keep on appearing, and I kept wondering where I had read them before (Lysander and Timothy, and, oh dear, I forgot the other man).
There are lots of names and places, every single one of which is unfamiliar, since the names have changed multiple times since then. It's pretty heavy going though - even heavier than John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland.
I read Ussher's Annals of the World from 4004BC to 48AD (in chronological order), and, well, it's a good read.
The further back one goes, the sparser the account is, and the only document that remains standing is. The interesting thing about this is that there are not that many documents. Ussher's Annals of the World is a blow-by-blow chronological summary of the documents recording the history of the world from creation to 50AD.
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